NationStates Jolt Archive

I was wondering if anyone could suggest any good novels to read ?

I have recently ran out of things to read in my house, and yern for more !

So if anyone could recommend a few, it would be greatly appreciated !

Thank you :D

Bumpedy :rolleyes:

My favorite novels are by Harry Turtledove. The American Empire series is yum.

I'm currently reading a book by Dan Brown called "Deception Point" which is very good. What type of novel are you looking for?

Anything by Crichton or Burroughs.

Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis (the movie does it no justice)
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Letter to His Father and The Mouse Folk by Franz Kafka

That should get you going.

Terry Pratchett, anything by him, it's very funny

Terry Pratchett, anything by him, it's very funny
I wasn't such a fan of Pratchett but "Going Postal" his new book, is absolutely brilliant.

I find Dan Brown to be a pretty poor writer.
In fairness, he stumbled upon a great story with The Da Vinci Code, but I've read Digital Fortress and Decpetion Point, and I found it very hard to like any of the characters, and his stories are pretty poor.

But anyway:
"Embers" by Sandor Darai is really good
"The Third Policeman" by Flann O'Brien is quite good, surreal humour though.

They're good ones to start off.

I recommend the "Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency" books by Alexander McCall Smith. They're brilliant and completely unlike anything I've read before.

The Hitchikers Guide to The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams,
or the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson

These books all launch very good series:

"A Hymn Before Battle" - John Ringo
"Crusade" - David Weber and Steve White
"1632" - Eric Flint

The Series:
"A Hymn Before Battle" -> "Gust Front" -> "When the Devil Dances" -> "Hell's Faire"

"Crusade" -> "In Death Ground" -> "The Shiva Option" -> "Insurrection"

"1632" -> "1633" -> "Ring of Fire" -> "1634: The Gallileo Affair" -> "1634: The Baltic War" (Forthcoming)

The 1632 series is particularly awesome, as it's cool, funny, and just-plain-good. Imagine a time travel phenomena that randomly dumps Hickville, USA into the middle of Europe in 1632. The fun ensues from there!

The 1632 series is particularly awesome, as it's cool, funny, and just-plain-good. Imagine a time travel phenomena that randomly dumps Hickville, USA into the middle of Europe in 1632. The fun ensues from there!

:eek: I gotta get my hands on that!

The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick
The Rotter's Club by Jonathan Coe
City of Glass by Paul Auster
Demian by Herman Hesse
In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami
The Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
The Mouse that Roared by Leonard Wibberly
Breaking the Tongue by Vyvyane Loh

Oh, yeah, also get:

the "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman. Three books, they're called:
1. "The Golden Compass (US title)" / "Northern Lights (UK title)"
2. "The Subtle Knife"
3. "The Amber Spyglass"

They're a semi-fantasy trilogy, based in a number of parallel universes, and the entire thing ends up in a titanic battle between good and evil, encompassing god, love and truth.
It's probably the best series I've ever read.

Also, if you like Rennaissance stuff, get "Q" by Luther Blissett. It's all about the Reformation in Europe, Vatican spies etc...

I wasn't such a fan of Pratchett but "Going Postal" his new book, is absolutely brilliant.

Holy crap, I had no idea that was out yet.



Murakami's also pretty good, start with Wild Sheep Chase then Dance Dance Dance.

The "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman. Three books, they're called:
1. "Northern Lights (UK title)"
2. "The Subtle Knife"
3. "The Amber Spyglass"

They're a semi-fantasy trilogy, based in a number of parallel universes, and the entire thing ends up in a titanic battle between good and evil, encompassing god, love and truth.
It's probably the best series I've ever read.
Me too, don't believe I forgot that. Brilliant series, each book just gets better and better. I fully recommend these. 11/10 for me.

I would undoubtably recommend the Discworld series. It is by Terry Pratchett, and the first book is The Color of Magic. IT is hillarious. (parodical fantasy)

Read A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. It's a brilliantly funny book.

yay

"The Bell Jar" - Sylvia Plath
"To Kill a Mockingbird" - Harper Lee
"The Grapes of Wrath" - John Steinbeck
"Catch 22" - Joseph Heller
"1984" - George Orwell
"Animal Farm" - George Orwell
"Brave New World" - Aldous Huxley
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" - Harriet Beecher Stowe
the "Earth's Children" series - Jean Auel

If you like horror, try John Saul.

If you like mystery, try Agatha Christie.

If you like sci-fi, try the "Ender's Game" or "Alvin Maker" series by Orson Scott Card.

Catch 22 is one of my favourite novels. However, I haven't read the supposed sequel. Is it any good?

"Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is hands down the best book I have ever read. Don't read "Don Quixote" it takes forever to get through, some of it is brilliant, some of it is a bit tedious.

"Middlesez" by Jeffrey Eugenides is a good modern book also.

My favourite novelist is Kazuo Ishiguro. Read The Remains of the Day or An Artist of the Floating World first, and go from there.

Another favourite is Irving Stone. The Agony and the Ecstasy is an epic, and the best novel I've ever read. It's a biographical novel of Michaelangelo Buonarroti's life, with Michaelangelo as the main character. But to call it a "biographical novel" is understatement in the class of calling the Sistine Chapel ceiling a "religious mural".

And of course The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien. The Hobbit should be read first. My personal favourite book by him is The Silmarillion.

For sci-fi check out The Forever War (I forget the author) and the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson.

As always i have to take this chance to plug Gormenghast lol.

Its very good honestly. :p

Edited - Gene Ware Inc! You beat me to it! *prods with a rolled up newspaper*

The Gormenghast trilogy, by Mervyn Peake. It gets a bit weird in the third book, but characters throughout are just amazing (eee! Steerpike!)

If you can handle carrying around a glittery book, the Artemis Fowl (by Eoin Colfer) series is quite, quite excellent. It's about a child genius who, in the first book, kidnaps a fairy to demand a ransom - and fairies aren't prissy little things with wings, either... They have a whole underground sub-culture. Oh, and really big guns. Colfer actually makes them worth reading about.

A Series of Unfortunate Events (Lemony Snickett) is a currently favourite of mine. It follows the life of three children, Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire, after their parents die and they get sent to live with their 'uncle', Count Olaf... he turns out to be a villain, and each book in the series has them fleeing him to another guardian, only to have him turn up again. The best part is that it's not a typical 'the good guys always win' book. The whole mystery facet is also really interesting.


I second recommendations for the Discworld series, the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy series (don't be fooled, there are five books, not three/four - the fifth is titled 'mostly harmless... I didn't know that until I found MH at a carboot sale). Good Omens by Pratchett and Neil Gaiman is also good...

Ahh, so many books I have to re-read...

I was wondering if anyone could suggest any good novels to read ?

I have recently ran out of things to read in my house, and yern for more !

So if anyone could recommend a few, it would be greatly appreciated !

Thank you :D
Herman Hesse's "Demian" is my favorite book.

If you like sci-fi, try the "Ender's Game" or "Alvin Maker" series by Orson Scott Card.

which if everything goes well there should be a movie out about "Ender's Game" and Ender's shadow.

Nice choice if i do say so myself but also check out "Enchantment" A story melding modern times and russian folklore, or "The Folk of the Fringe" a set of overlaping short stories. Also by O.S.C.

A few of my favs are.....
Anything Robert A. heinlein, but in particular "Stranger in a Strange Land" About a human born on mars, very political and religious, and "Job" a story about a modern day Job, that takes a very different path from the bible.

Anything Anne Rice, "Blackwood Farms" is my fav of hers thus far.

A series by Craig Shaw Gardner called "The Dragon Circle", consisting of, "Dragon Sleeping", "Dragon Waking", and "Dragon burning" respectively.

also if you have any fasination at all with king arthur and the like. although you may find it odd that the book is by Deepak Chopra (a renound self-help author) i think you might also be surprized at its eloquence. The book is called Merlin. and it deals with the reincarnated souls of many of the main players in the original story being beckoned back by merlin to save themselves the first time around.

ssl

Anything by Crichton or Burroughs.

Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis (the movie does it no justice)
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Letter to His Father and The Mouse Folk by Franz Kafka

That should get you going.

Kazantzakis' book is outstanding. If you are going with the heavy stuff read Dostoevsky's Demons. Although written in the 19th century it is the best commentary on our current terrorism obsessed world I've read.

I got three:

Sci-Fi: Ender's Game

Fantasy: The Culai Heritage

Just plain freaky: House of Leaves

Culai Heritage is a bit gory, just as a warning, but a good book nonetheless. Ender's Game is just cool. House of Leaves I haven't personally read, but I've heard tons about it.

The New Jedi Order Series, On Wings of Eagles, and the Bible (best thing to read when your board)

If you are interested in a book full of rich imagery, I would suggest Mishima's The Sound of Waves.

For just plain fun, Rowling's "Harry Potter" Series.

For a fast, fun, if predictable read, Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events."

I loved Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" -- read all three books and the appendices some ten years ago -- in one weekend.

If you are a fan of mysteries and medieval times, Ellis Peters' "Cadfael" books are wonderful as well.

I am also a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, and just about anything by John Steinbeck.

If you're gonna read 1 novel, just pick something from Chuck Palahniuk (writer of "Fight Club"). You're gonna end up reading all of them. Chuck is god.

Kazantzakis' book is outstanding. If you are going with the heavy stuff read Dostoevsky's Demons. Although written in the 19th century it is the best commentary on our current terrorism obsessed world I've read.

Yes! Another absolute must read.

Fools Die
The Family
The Godfather
Omerta

These are all by Mario Puzo, a brilliant author with a fantastic sense for storywriting. The character development is terrific, and the plots are very interesting, The Family's in particular. Other than those I'd suggest:

A Painted House
The Client
The Pelican Brief

Three of my favorite John Grisham books. Grisham, like Puzo, is an awesome storyteller. These should keep you busy for a while.

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston is one of my favourite books. It's not really a novel--it's about the Ebola and Marburg viruses--but is a very engaging read none the less.

Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber is another book related to science, but actually is a novel, and is quite interesting.

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson is another science book that should be read, but isn't a novel.

Moving on to real novels...

Terry Brooks's Shannara series is one of my all-time favourite series.

Dune by Frank Herbert is an awsome book, with a fairly large series, but this one is really the crème de la crème.

James Clavell's The Asian Saga is a very good series, though my favourite is definitely Shōgun, which is the book that got me interested in Japan, which has lasted several years. Samurai William by Giles Milton, a biography of William Adams (a.k.a. John Blackthorne) is a good supplementary reading to Shōgun if you want to learn more.

David Edding's two series The Belgariad and The Malloreon are both quite good.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a very odd book, but still pretty good.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon is another strange book, about an autistic child.

I haven't read John Knowles's A Separate Peace for quite a while, but I enjoyed it very much if I recall correctly.

There are other books, like The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, the Ender series by Orson Scott Card, and the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, but I'm pretty sure I saw others already recommend these.

Catch 22 is one of my favourite novels. However, I haven't read the supposed sequel. Is it any good?
im pretty sure that catch 22 is the only heller book worth reading.

good omens by pratchett and gaiman. the very best of both writers

great expectations is the best dickens book. my mother promised me that if i could just get past the first few pages of the tale of 2 cities that i would love it (it was the best of times, it was the worst of times) but i never could get past that opening crap. so who knows.

i highly recommend anything by Bret Easton Ellis. because he is my god.

Donna Tartt's The Little Friend and The Secret History are pretty enjoyable (the little friend is my personal favourite)

Hard to go wrong with Iris Murdoch- Well-written, generally pretty easy, and most offer an insight into British life (favourites: The Sea the Sea and Bruno's Dream)

Kerouac's On the Road is breathtaking, passionate and v vibrant- possibly the best in American literature

Arundhati Roy's God of the Small Things is beautifully written and v poignant - a must read, re-read and re-re-read! :)

If you can find a good translation of Boris Vian's dreamlike Écume des Jours READ IT! same goes for stuff by Barjavel and Japrisot

my mother promised me that if i could just get past the first few pages of the tale of 2 cities that i would love it (it was the best of times, it was the worst of times) but i never could get past that opening crap. so who knows.
In retrospect it's a good book, but I have to admit that it plods somewhat.

which if everything goes well there should be a movie out about "Ender's Game" and Ender's shadow.
Really? Awesome.

As always i have to take this chance to plug Gormenghast lol.

Its very good honestly. :p
Yeah, Mervyn Peake is unique.

In retrospect it's a good book, but I have to admit that it plods somewhat.
Yeah, A Tale of Two Cities isn't as good all the way through as some of Dickens's other books, but it does have its great parts.

If you want some good political thrillers don't turn to Tom Clancy. Go for Richard Herman. Now, almost all of his books have an aviation twist in them so be forewarned. His first book is The Warbirds but his best book that I have read is Power Curve. It's the story of a woman POTUS.

My favorite author (apart form Pratchett) writes very big sci-fi:

Iain M Banks: Against a Dark Background - for a stand alone story.

Iain M Banks: Consider Phlebas - "beginning" of Culture series, about a massively armed, highly aggressive utopia.



Also David Wingrove: Chung Kou series - 7 book series, up to book 5 is very good.

DUNE!!!!!!

Best book ever written.

Anything by Kurt Vonnegut

I agree with the comments about dune, it's simply a marvelous book.

However, Oscar Wilde writes a wonderful story of decadance in the Picture of Dorian Grey.

Read A Confederacy of Dunces! it is the funniest book of all time and no book will ever rival its hillarity!

By Alexandr Solzhenitsyn: The First Circle, The Gulag Archipelago

By Gabriel Garcia Marquez: One Hundred Years of Solitude, Chronicle of Death Foretold, The General in his Labyrinth.

By Hermann Hesse: Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, Narcissus and Goldmund

Anything by Kurt Vonnegut

By Kyril Bonfiglioli: Don't Point that Thing at Me

Asimov's Foundation series

Frank Herbert's Dune books.

Nonfiction:

Anything by John Keegan, Barbara Tuchman

"Salt: A World History" By Mark Kurlansky

Herman Hesse's "Demian" is my favorite book.


A very good book, Steppenwolf and Siddhartha tie with Marquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude as my favorite books.

I think i've read Siddhartha 20 times.


And words cannot express my love for Steppenwolf and my gratitude to Hesse's genius.

Recently, I managed to get a first edition of Steppenwolf.